EUROPEAN FAMILY THERAPY ASSOCIATION
CONNECTING FAMILY THERAPISTS AND TRAINERS
www.efta-relates2025.com
SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN
Dear friends and colleagues, we are looking forward to meet you in Lyon.
As scientific and organizational committees we would like to share our vision with you.
We imagine a space where sharing becomes possible in a vibrant interactional and creative encounter. That’s why we have thought of many different formats, with the hope that you will submit a proposal and engage with us in this endeavor.
Our vision is to have dialogues and conversations instead of linear presentations. We wish to encourage and include active participants, along with those who prefer to be reflective listeners.
Proposals that use holistic, embodied and artistic methods that challenge us out of comfort zone to create new learning opportunities are welcomed.
- We would like workshops to be very collaborative and inspire the participants.
- We will have a room at the University where there will be videos every hour. These could introduce clinical sessions, supervisions, actual or roleplayed and filmed, and other presentations. (Please pay attention to confidentiality and confirm that you have permission to share in this context if you choose to present in this format.) Some will be introduced by presenters; others could be standalone films. We also request you to make suggestions of videos that could be interesting for people, such films about pioneers or ground breakers in our field or of others who may wish to demonstrate their innovative work or provide other opportunities to stimulate learning.
- We hope to have some longer sessions that bring together some presentations on similar themes within a reflexive space that enables the exchange of ideas. For example we are thinking of putting together the colleagues who will present on violence and give them a space and a longer time so that there will be time for discussing
- We are thinking through the possibilities of reserving a room to provide live in presence work for therapists to demonstrate and discuss their work. This will of course be done in role-plays.
- Presentations that incorporate any of the arts in a way that enlivens and energizes our work are especially encouraged.
- We are available to open up to other initiatives that you might propose – please join us in sending your ideas.
Let’s meet in Lyon at the end of August 2025!!
Leggi la lettera in italiano
From 28 to 30 August, the 13th edition of this systemic conference went ahead. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland organise a conference on systemic practice every three years. Coincidence does not exist? On the way to the conference, I flip through my newspaper where I read an extensive article on the difference in parenting […]
1. Reflection from Umberta Telfener : As Social Justice and Systemic Thinking Task Force we met the first time at the NFTO in Sofia in June 2023, we created a whatsup group and exchanged some “fast” thoughts wondering what to deal with. Too many issues seemed important and focus was needed. Then life took over but right now we decided to start meeting and discussing again regularly. These words are just some reflections on the too many terrible and unjustified wars we are surrounded by.
Few days ago a client of mine posed this question: “Are we more violent compared to Medieval times?” I was stunned since I was questioning myself about the horrors of war in a time of enhanced consciousness: why does a civilized country become violent and destroy others? How can individuals de-humanize and do things that are despicable and they would judge as horrendous in times of peace? I started searching ….
2. Answer from Borislava Metcheva : I read the article carefully and so many thoughts are racing through my head… I am struggling a lot with the idea how we can make sense of what is going on globally so that the way we make sense of it help us see a path forward…
Here are some of my thoughts:
First of all, I am thinking about “conscious purpose” (Bateson) – for how long as societies we were enchanted by this premise and for how long this narrative of “achievement-improvement-more achievement-more ambition-and so on” organized our behavior at large scale…
3. Thoughts by Cinthe Lemmens : I read both of your contributions, Umberta and Borislava, my systemic colleagues, friends. How good is it not to feel alone, to belong to a large systemic community. Connectivity and exchange as an antidote to apathy, indifference, desensitization, numbness, hopelessness…
Reading your thoughts brings up new thoughts, memories.
It takes me back to the presentation of Lucie Hornova in Sofia, Bulgaria, our latest NFTO-meeting. She (and we) talked about hope and hopelessness, quoting K. Weingarten who says: ‘Hoping is not just a feeling or a noun, hope is also a verb that we can practice. We Do Hope.’
4. Thoughts by Petya Varcheva: The written by Umberta and Borislava is strongly resonating in me. Following the flow I feel, I would like to share some of my associations and reflections
I’m also struggling with the question – how we, as humans, have created such a context in which this terrifying violence became possible and so many of us became passive bystanders, supporting with their silence or openly justifying people killing people…
5. Thoughts by Charlie Azzopardi: On reflecting on contemporary history and the current world situation, and reading the interesting reflections of other colleagues, I could not stop myself from writing down some ideas about what is going on in terms of social justice. Of course having learned to think systemically I cannot but not view the contemporary complex political situation from this perspective and make sense of everything around me by connecting “everything to everything else” (Bateson).
Hello to everybody, I am Umberta Telfener, the new President of EFTA.
I am very honored to have received this assignment which I personally care very much about.
I am in EFTA since 1991, first as an individual and from 2010 representing the Milan Institute of Family Therapy (Luigi Boscolo and Gianfranco Cecchin). I become a member of the TIC Board in 2016 and from November 2020 I was its Chair. Now I will act as your President and intend to do my very best.
Agenda Upcoming events
Professor Zhao explained that the Chinese mentality is organized by Confucian familyism, that is a key to understand China and the Chinese. Individuation is rare in China, the patriarchal Society is based on families and on the worship of ancestors. He considers “family” the most flexible word in the Chinese vocabulary since families are an organization ordered by practical and utilitarian necessities: the highest form of life is to fulfill parents unfulfilled wishes and tasks.
We remember exactly where we were on 24 February 2022. The Board of EFTA was gathered in Barcelona for its meeting. Just before sunrise, we were alarmed by the news that Putin had illegally invaded Ukraine. We could not know what would happen to the country or to Europe, and we still do not know. Now, entering the third year of this war, the tragedy seems stuck and negotiation for peace far away.
Dear members, We decided to upload the “Assisi Manifesto” to let you know what is the latest choral effort of clinicians around the world reflecting on our specific work as systemic practitioners. As I think you know by now I am not keen on bringing everything back to families: I think that systemic thinking obliges […]
HELP EFTA GROW!
- Encourage professionals, Training Institutes and National Federations you consider eligible to join. (Refer to the websites of the 3 Chambers for membership categories and criteria).
- Promote EFTA to students and trainees, supporting them to apply for associate membership.